The American Nation A History of the United States, Combined Volume (14th Edition)

The Embargo Act 189

The attack was in violation of international law, for
no nation claimed the right to impress sailors from
warships. The British government admitted this,
though it delayed making restitution for years. The
American press clamored for war, but the country had
nothing to fight with. Jefferson contented himself with
ordering British warships out of American territorial
waters. However, he was determined to put a stop to
the indignities being heaped on the flag by Great
Britain and France. The result was the Embargo Act.
The Embargo Act prohibited all exports. American
vessels could not clear for any foreign port, and foreign
vessels could do so only if empty. Importing was not
forbidden, but few foreign ships would come to the
United States if they had to return without a cargo.
Although the law was sure to injure the American econ-
omy, Jefferson hoped that it would work in two ways to
benefit the nation. By keeping U.S. merchant ships off
the seas, it would end all chance of injury to them and
to the national honor. By cutting off American goods
and markets, it would put great economic pressure on
Britain and France to moderate policies toward
American shipping. The fact that boycotts had repeat-
edly wrested concessions from the British during the
crises preceding the Revolution was certainly in
Jefferson’s mind when he devised the embargo.
Seldom has a law been so bitterly resented and
resisted by a large segment of the public. It demanded

of the maritime interests far greater sacrifices than

they could reasonably be expected to make.

Massachusetts-owned ships alone were earning over

$15 million a year in freight charges by 1807, and Bay

State merchants were making far larger gains from the

buying and selling of goods. Foreign commerce was

the most expansive force in the economy, the chief

reason for the nation’s prosperity. As John Randolph

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

1790 1794 1798 1802 1806 1810

$ Millions

Embargo Act,

Dec. 1807

Macon’s Bill No. 2

May 1810

Value of imports

Value of exports

plus reexports

American Foreign Trade, 1790–1812This graph shows the

embargo’s effects. The space between the upper (import) and the

lower (export) line indicates a persistent foreign-trade deficit.

The Ograbme (“embargo” spelled backward), a snapping turtle drawn by cartoonist Alexander Anderson,

frustrates an American tobacco smuggler.

Source: Collection of The New-York Historical Society, [Neg. No. 7278].